I'm a new PbP GM and wondering about best practice or policy for dealing with absentee players, particularly when playing for Society credit.
I'm GMing a Quest for the second time. The first one took 2-3 weeks so I'm assuming this one will take a similar amount of time.
2 of the 6 players have been absent for over a week, so that's 1/3 to 1/2 of the adventure. No communication from either prior to the absence.
Player 1 does not have PMs enabled, so I am considering them as having abandoned the table. That seems fair to me.
I'm more wondering about Player 2. I reached out and received a quick reply that they have sick family members and will catch up. It's been another two days since then. I totally sympathize with their situation, but again, they've been gone for about 1/2 the adventure at this point. Additionally, their participation has been minimal from the beginning.
I don't really think it's fair to the four players who have been actively and enthusiastically participating to give credit to Player 2 if they pop back in toward the end. Nonetheless, still feels a bit mean to kick someone from the game.
One thing I've learned form the experience is to have a clearly stated absence policy, especially with Society play.
Thanks for reading and any comments!